11 Comments

Oh come on! Cut poor Morticia some slack. She hardly "wrested" the cuddly toy from Pape. It was intended for her anyway (I was in the box next to the guy who threw it) but since it landed behind her at the precise moment she had her head down, she didn't see it and Pape amusingly threw his hat over it so she couldn't then see it when turning around. He clearly intended to pull the rabbit out of his hat as one last piece of upstaging diablerie, and though she evidently thought it was his "gift" to her, Pape tried hard when handing it over to gesture to whence it had actually come.

Odd how Griggsy recovered full working voice for the live worldwide HD relay less than 48 hours after cancelling the previous performance: and how both Pape and Tish found vocal fourth gear otherwise not encountered in this revival so far....

And I'm never returning to this silly staging until they cut the dismal ballet and restore the Spinning scene at the start of Act IV, leaving the church scene until the end.

Wonder what everyone else thinks, but I find the cameras can be a little distracting in the stalls. Does the ROH indicate (in literature/website) which performances are being recorded? Seems with their new DVD label, and the success of cinema screenings, that this is happening more frequently.

Well, if the toy was really meant for Hvor, the dope who threw it would have been better advised to throw it during his curtain call, rather than wait all the way through both his AND Pape's, and then chuck it during Morticia's. Timing, dear, timing..

I liked the ballet, weird as it was. Adored Rene Pape in his ballgown--especially the tiara.

I saw this on the worldwide simulcast in the U.S. and thought the cameras did a good job of capturing the entire performance without smacking us in the face with nasty super-close-ups of singers sweating. Sorry the cameras are in your way. For the Met HDs, they mess up some parterre box inhabitants' view. Plus I imagine the moving camera on the stage level is a distraction to anyone in front orchestra seating.

Bottom line, I am grateful the ROH teamed with Opera in Cinema/Emerging Pictures here in the U.S. and we're getting to see several fascinating performances this fall. I am eagerly looking forward to the Adriana Lecouvreur.

The house quietly reseats/upgrades anybody likely to end up with a restricted view as a result of camera placements, though live relays such as this one are always known about way in advance, and tickets for seats likely to be affected are never actually put on sale at the start of booking anyway.

These days - at least in 2D, pro-tem - modern cameras work off available light, so you might very well attend a performance and not know that it was being filmed/televised at all (unlike the performances of my youth, where the extra lights left the stage a blinding haze and the heat fried the varnish off the woodwork).

In which connection, don't miss the new release on Opus Arte of the Royal Ballet's "Alice" filmed in March, as much fun as you will ever have with your clothes on.....